Development Rumours

[Canadian_Bacon]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

I think it looks good, but I think it would be better if the towers didn't all look so similar.

Agreed. It does look interesting, but they look the same, which hurts the look of them in my opinion.

[beyeas]

Totally agree that having them look all the same hurts the look right now.
I can tell you that my impression when I talked to them was that this was a) preliminary and b) something that they rushed a bit to get out as a concept.

The "rush" is that they are trying to keep the bank tenants. Those leases expire in the next 5 years, and I would bet money that since those buildings (especially RBC) are not really true class A any more, that the banks have threatened to leave. It is clear in the AllNS article that the goal to keep those tenants, and that the banks are of course being actively courted by other developers.

I am a bit torn... on one hand if done well this could be an interesting redevelopment resulting in three 26 story towers and one 23 story tower. However, as the AllNS article points out, if the banks move, just one bank moving to a new development would likely be enough to enable the development to go ahead (think the triangle lands tower). So if say RBC and BMO were both to move, that could enable two totally new office towers, and the existing buildings could settle in to life as class B space with lowered rent.

Clearly that is not what the building owner wants (it is certainly interesting that one owner own all three buildings), but it is up to the market in terms of where the banks go. That is, however, clearly why they are rushing this concept out there, because if they don't then they could sooner rather than later lose the banks to new developments with more 🞵🞵🞵 appeal.

[Jstaleness]

I agree, building shapes are great but they need to be of different colors and materials.

[Jonovision]

I do really like it, but same as everyone is saying they should be slightly different. The TD tower to me looks like it does not fit with the other 3 however. I really like the gold piece on the RBC tower. I'm assuming these are planned at rampart heights, but if not I think it would be cool if the two middle towers were taller than the others. Having two twin peaks in the skyline would look really good. And maybe if more stone was used on the facade of the BMO building. Something that would help it differentiate itself.

[Jonovision]

sorry double post

[DigitalNinja]

I really like what they did with the RBC building, BMO not so much.

My dad came up while I was looking at the pics and first thing he said was "Wow, now those are some nice buildings" He didn't even know where they were at.

[JustinMacD]

Just saw this on CTV News about this development.

They talked to 4 people on the street and, surprise surprise, the young people loved the idea and the middle aged/older people hated it.

The old "WHY DON'T WE JUST REFURBISH OUR OLDER HERITAGE BUILDINGS AND FORGET ABOUT TOWERS?" line came up.

[halifaxboyns]

Until I looked at the renderings; I had no idea what people were talking about lol.

But I have to say; this is really impressive. And, this is exactly what HbD envissioned of adaptive re-use of heritage buildings. You can easily add modern buildings and retain the heritage ones - this reminds me of something out of Europe and really takes what Waterside was thinking and expands it big time. There are some minor things which would need to change - similar colour is a bad thing, different colours would be better - perhaps associate the colours with the bank? So greenish tint for TD, dark blue for Royal and light blue for BMO?

But thinking big like this is what the city needs. If this were to go ahead, I'd suggest that this part of downtown to the convention centre (if it's built) by called the financial district. Btw, the little community flags for the picture in Dartmouth are exactly what the downtown core needs in order to denote these districts.

[someone123]

I'm not hugely thrilled with the idea of expanding these buildings. It would be much better to have new towers like International Place (or the Nova Centre tower) on empty land than it would be to have a larger building on, say, the RBC site. My hope is that some of these tenants will be captured by new projects and some of the existing office towers will move downmarket a little and attract different tenants. This may not be what the landlords would like most but it would result in a greater variety of businesses downtown. A lot of the companies that go for suburban offices right now might choose to take up cheaper space in something like the BMO building but could not afford to construct a new office building for themselves downtown.

Design-wise the Royal Bank looks okay while the TD leaves a lot to be desired. The roof in particular looks very strange.

[Keith P.]

My first impression of the BMO building is that with the enlarged base, it looks too short.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by JustinMacD

Just saw this on CTV News about this development.

They talked to 4 people on the street and, surprise surprise, the young people loved the idea and the middle aged/older people hated it.

The old "WHY DON'T WE JUST REFURBISH OUR OLDER HERITAGE BUILDINGS AND FORGET ABOUT TOWERS?" line came up.

Many of the middle-aged/older people who like modern high-rises have moved away. Even so, I am sure that a large percentage of middle-aged/older people in the HRM like modern high-rises (after all they were all young at one time). I am not offended, I just want to point out that this is a misconception.

[MonctonRad]

This looks like an extremely impressive proposal but I have to agree with some previous posters that there should be some variety in the cladding materials. There is way too much uniformity here.......it makes the whole development seem rather bland. Each tower should have a unique personality.

If this proceeds, I hope that they will see fit to rework their design a little bit.

[DigitalNinja]

IMO if they added a rounded corner to the TD bank, say from 5th floor up. It would make the design a lot better, it is ok, but nothing spectacular.

[worldlyhaligonian]

It would be better if they just did the TD plan, gave RBC a reclad and some extra height, and left BMO the way it is.

I want to see new buildings on empty lots, not crazy changes to existing buildings that have good forms and maybe just need exterior cosmetic changes. BMO is iconic... the rendering for the new building isn't even very good. Its tacky compared to the IP design.

[halifaxboyns]

I have to give them credit for thinking outside of what is the box for HRM. Yeah some parts need some re-thinking - the TD bank one, I agree. Angles of the roof are really off and the cladding needs to be more specific to the bank towers or different. One coworker saw it and suggested bright pink - that's a stretch (she was of course joking).

But considering these spots (other than Cogswell and Maritime Centre) are probably some of the few spots in downtown where height could happen. While I'd like to see newer buildings too; this is a great idea for an active re-use, while keeping the heritage buildings/facades.

I particularly like the BMO tower; the rounded edges - I think that's kewl. All that glass and steel would likely blend well with International Place (when it's built) and the same with Twisted Sisters. The design accent on the Royal Bank Building for the emblem sign is pretty kewl.

I counted the existing BMO tower at either 16 to 17 storeys; so with this proposal BMO would go to 24. I couldn't see the existing BMO tower very well using the bing birds eye; so I may be off a storey or two.

[halifaxboyns]

One thing which I forgot to mention about the design - on a quick glance from HRM's GIS map - it appears that viewplane 5 runs down George street and will affect these properties slightly - TD more so. The VP is gradually moving away from the property line shared with George street, so BMO won't be affected by it but that's why TD has that shrunken section near George Street.

However, viewplane 4 chops a significant cut out of the corner of the BMO site at the intersection of George and Lower Water. Upon quick glance; I'm guessing that the building design takes these into consideration (BMO is stepped back at the corner, with a podium up to 4 stories and then that taller portion stepped back).

[DigitalNinja]

The current TD and BMO buildings are both 73m or 18 stories, the RBC center is 13 stories.

Kinda funny the tallest structure in HRM is the stacks for tuffs cove at about 150m

[worldlyhaligonian]

Imagine twin towers of that height on the cogswell site!

[Canadian_Bacon]

Of the towers, I have to say my my favorite is the RBC tower. I actually like the look of that proposal (aside from a few changes I'd make.) But overall I really like it.

But it would be nice to see new developments, rather then extending existing developments. But hey, any development is better then none.

[Phalanx]

Yeah, I like all three, personally. Sadly, I don't think we're likely to see all three, but...

The RBC one is my favourite of the lot, but I like the BMO option, too. Here's hoping that the TD option, at least, goes through...